YouTube Counts How Much Time Users Spend on the Platform

It seems that lately, all the big companies are implementing tools that measure the time users spend on their platforms. We have Facebook’s and Instagram’s example and it seems that now Google has aligned with the trend.

It seems that Google I/O has planned this since Spring, but they announced the new tool on YouTube only yesterday.

What does this YouTube counts how much time users spend mean?

1. Know how much time you spend watching videos on YouTube

Going to their account menu, users will be able to see how much time they have spent watching videos in the last day and even over a past week.

2. Reminder to take a break

A new feature of the app is the reminder to take a break from watching videos. We all know that we enjoy watching animals on YouTube, watching documentaries or listening to music, but they must all have a limit. And when we enjoy doing something, we forget about time. That is why YouTube has installed a friendly reminder to take a break from video watching. How can you do this? You go to the settings menu and pick the amount of time you want to spend on YouTube. When you have reached it, you will get a friendly reminder that you have to take a break. It is up to you if you listen to it or snooze it.

3. Notifications

If you want more control in what notifications are about, you can now opt to receive one single notification per day and you can select when to receive it – meaning the time frame. To do this, you must go to settings and select the time you want to receive it.

4. Disable sounds and vibrations for notifications

If you are an avid user with FOMO, but still need some moments of silence, YouTube has made this possible for you: you can now control sound and vibrations for notifications by disabling them for a certain time frame you want – eg. during nighttime or while at the office. You can do this by going to the settings menu.

What do you think about the new features for YouTube? Do you find them useful?